Nightengale's Notebook: Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes is poster boy for MLB labor fight

PHOENIX — Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes was in a Phoenix-area hospital this week with his wife, Brooke, celebrating the birth of their first child, with his cell phone constantly vibrating away.

While his Milwaukee Brewers teammates were trying to gather the latest information on Major League Baseball’s lockout from Burnes as their player representative, he was busily filling in family on his newborn son, Carter.

"It was a crazy time," Burnes tells USA TODAY Sports. "It would have been nice to get a fair deal done, but there’s always a silver lining."

Burnes, 27, could have plenty of priceless time to spend with his son now that MLB’s lockout enters its fourth month with no quick resolution in sight.

While the casual baseball fan may not quite understand the complexities surrounding this 95-day lockout, one day Burnes will be able to explain to his son that he was one of the primary reasons the Major League Baseball Players Association battled so vigorously in negotiations.

These talks weren’t so much about free agency, or making rich players more rich, but assuring that young players are finally being treated fairly.

This is about the players who spent years making virtually nothing in the minor leagues, becoming stars after reaching the major leagues, but still being paid barely above the minimum salary despite their valuable contributions.

Yes, we’re talking about Corbin Burnes, one of the best pitchers in all of baseball last season, and winner of the 2021 NL Cy Young award.

If you put a value on Burnes’ performance last season – 11-5 with a league-leading 2.43 ERA and 234 strikeouts and 34 walks – he was worth $59.8 million based on his WAR calculated by FanGraphs. If you include his 2020 season, too, he was worth $79.2 million the past two seasons.

Guess what Burnes earned last year?

Just $608,000, or just $38,500 more than the minimum salary.

He has earned a total of $1.178 million the past two seasons, which New York Mets ace Max Scherzer will earn every five days on the job this season.

"It’s cool to see what that new salary would have been, and a motivation for guys early on in their career," Burnes says. "Everybody would love to get paid like Scherzer and (Gerrit) Cole, but you don’t see a lot of those guys. What you see are the guys who spend five or six years grinding in the minors, getting $300 to $400 a check, debuting at 24 or 25, and being controlled for three more years for about minimum pay.

"When you see these young guys come up, and they are superstars, they deserve to get paid like one."

MLB, recognizing the flaw in the economic system, has come up with mechanisms for a market correction. MLB has offered a 23% increase from $570,500 to $700,000 in minimum salaries (just $25,000 from the union’s last proposal), and a pre-arbitration bonus pool worth $30 million – $55 million shy of the union’s request.

If MLB’s proposed system was in place last year, instead of earning $608,000, Burnes would have earned $2.786 million. He would have received a $1 million bonus for winning the Cy Young, $500,000 for being selected to the All-MLB first team, and $676,524 based on his WAR.

It’s not Scherzer and Cole money, but considering the alternative all of these years where clubs had the right to pay nothing more than the minimum salary – with players like Toronto Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. earning just $605,400 – it’s a huge step forwards for players not yet eligible for salary arbitration. The top 30 players would receive an average raise of 79%.

There were 902 players on opening-day rosters a year ago, and 417 players earned less than $1 million. The average major-league salary dropped 6.4% compared to 2017, while the median salary was $1.15 million, down 30% from 2015.

Come on, something isn’t right when New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso has earned more money winning the last two All-Star Home Run Derbies than his total salary from the Mets.

It’s particularly unfair for the players like Burnes (St. Mary’s College) and Alonso (University of Florida) who attended college and are 27 years old. When they hit free agency, they’ll be 30, the age in which clubs start questioning whether they’re past their prime, replacing them with younger players. Jonathan India, the NL Rookie of the Year winner who attended Florida, will also be 30 when he’s eligible for free agency.

"You look at a guy like Pete, or Jonathan India and these guys are premium players who are potential superstars in the game," Burnes said. "But they’re not being paid like that. Not even close. Teams manipulate guys until they have to pay them.

"That’s why it means so much to see these veteran guys fight for the CBA. Guys like Scherzer and Cole and (Francisco) Lindor and (Mike) Trout are out there fighting to make the game better for future generations.

"The easy way out is to accept a deal that’s not fair, not something that will hurt us three or four years from now."

Hopefully, there will be a ripple effect, with MLB saying their last proposal on the table will be worth in excess of $500 million to young players with the increase in minimum salary, the bonus pool and the draft. Perhaps it will get the attention of young athletes trying to decide which sport to choose, knowing you don’t have to be Fernando Tatis Jr. to be rewarded early in your career.

"The first guy you think about is (Arizona Cardinals quarterback) Kyler Murray," Burnes says. "He went to the NFL instead of baseball because you get the big bucks right away. Maybe once we get a deal, we’ll be more appealing to guys.

"I think we could see a lot of good things happen, but we just got to make sure it’s a fair deal for everyone."

The dirty dozen

While MLB badly covets a 14-team postseason, the players are insisting on 12 teams and have no interest in changing their mind from the last proposal.

The only way they’d even be tempted to go to 14 teams is if MLB accepted their proposal to have the best team in each league get a first-round bye, while the other division winners received a "game in hand."

It would mean the division winners would need to win only one game in a best-of-three first-round series while the opposing team would need two victories.

MLB flatly rejected the idea, believing it could make a mockery out of the playoffs.

Certainly, it would further alienate baseball purists.

The union says it would never agree to a 14-team postseason otherwise.

"We want to make sure that teams are rewarded for winning the division," Burnes said. "We don’t want it to get to the point that half the teams are making the playoffs. It would water-down free agency and the competitiveness."

The difference between having a 12-team postseason and 14 teams?

There would have been six teams earning playoff berths with a losing record the past 10 full seasons with a 14-team postseason.

There would have been only one team with a losing record earn a postseason berth with a 12-team postseason.

Oh, and then there’s the monetary difference.

A 14-team playoff format is worth $100 million a year, and a 12-team playoff is worth about $60 million a year, according to officials.

One last hurdle

If you really look at it, there’s only one major obstacle standing in the way of the MLB and the players union reaching a deal and starting spring training: the luxury tax.

The union is seeking that the luxury tax starts at $238 million while MLB wants it at $220 million, with the two sides entrenched in their beliefs.

The other major economic issues have all been virtually resolved in their last exchange of proposals in Jupiter, Fla.

MINIMUM SALARY

Owners: $700,000 with $10,000 annual increases

Players: $725,000, $745,000, $765,000, cost of living increases last two years.

BONUS POOL FOR PRE-ARBITRATION PLAYERS

Owners: $30 million

Players: $85 million with $5 million annual increases.

DRAFT LOTTERY

Owners: 5 teams unless 14-team postseason.

Players: 6 teams, 12-team postseason.

DESIGNATED HITTER

Owners: Universal DH.

Players: Universal DH.

LUXURY TAX (next six years)

Owners: $220 million, $220 million, $220 million, $224 million, $230 million with tax rates staying the same.

Players: $238 million, $244 million, $250 million, $256 million, $263 million with tax rates staying the same.

The gap in proposals, according to union lead negotiator Bruce Meyer, is only about $90-$100 million, so about $3 million per club.

That’s it.

Certainly, Manfred can remind the owners that no one is mandated to spend.

Some teams make more than others, why not expect them to spend more than others?

Who knows, maybe the two sides can agree to exclude about $17 million in expenses that’s currently included in the luxury tax calculations, or working out an arrangement where small-market clubs get a bigger chunk of the money paid in tax penalties.

They better soon figure something out.

If not, with more games cancelled and a fight over back pay, it’s only going to get uglier by the day.

The Scott Boras influence?

It’s no secret that the man leading the charge for higher luxury tax thresholds in this CBA is veteran agent Scott Boras.

If not for Boras, MLB executives insist, a deal would already have been done.

Boras and the union scoff at the notion, saying he’s not part of the negotiations.

Still, no agent wields more power than Boras’ voice in these talks.

Boras represents five of the eight players on the union’s executive subcommittee: Max Scherzer, Gerrit Cole, Marcus Semien, James Paxton and Zack Britton. The other three are shortstop Francisco Lindor, reliever Andrew Miller and catcher Jason Castro.

The subcommittee, as well as the 30 player representatives from each club, have an instrumental vote on proposals throughout the negotiations.

Several agents believe that the union should consider a future rule prohibiting one agent from representing more than two players on the executive subcommittee.

Boras considers it nothing more than jealousy, asking why he should be singled out for having the most prominent and high-priced players.

"The executive board is built on commitment and competency," Boras says, "not who represents them. No one directly involved in the union process believes those players are not making their own decisions and thoughts. …

"It is the job of the player’s attorney to provide information and about the CBA history. They take the information and arrive at their own conclusions. It is their voice, and their vote that they give to the union representation and players. Anyone who knows these players understands this completely."

Oh, and the idea that Boras is perfectly content holding out until the union gets the desired luxury tax thresholds?

He reminds you that no agent in the land has more to lose than him with his high-priced clientele and 140-person staff.

You had to be there...

Sorry, the online audience wasn’t amused one bit when MLB commissioner Rob Manfred was inadvertently caught on camera momentarily laughing and smiling when taking the podium last week to announce the cancellation of the first week of games.

While Manfred was lambasted from coast to coast, the truth is that he was joking with New York Post columnist Ken Davidoff, who was retiring the next day, and the array of tape recorders on the podium.

Manfred joked with Davidoff as he walked by that he couldn’t retire until the negotiations were over, and he hated to see him leave now that they were getting along much more than the past.

That was it.

You can hate Manfred all you want for this lockout – or for anything he has ever done or said – but the laugh and smile, as reporters on the scene will tell you, was an innocent reaction.

Dodgers, Mets in the crosshairs

If it weren’t for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ $285 million payroll, you think there would be such a huge concern over the luxury tax?

They were the only breakaway spenders last year with the San Diego Padres ($216 million) barely crossing the threshold.

Yet, with Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick voting against even raising the threshold to $220 million, with Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort and San Diego Padres chairman Ron Fowler on the MLB negotiating committee, you have three of the five teams in the NL West who would love to punish the Dodgers as severely as possible.

The new bully on the block could be the New York Mets under new owner Steve Cohen, who already has a $265 million payroll that could escalate to $300 million.

So really, this luxury tax concern is about those two runaway teams.

There have been only nine teams who have exceeded the luxury tax threshold since it was implemented in 2003, and just three teams – the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers – have gone over it more than twice.

Yet, the larger the tax threshold, the more teams may inch towards it, with four teams last year within $5 million of the $210 million luxury tax, and stopping short.

"We look at the competitive balance tax as a breakaway spending mechanism," Scherzer said. "That's how this thing was originally negotiated. We’re not seeing that function as breakaway spending. We're seeing it act as a salary cap. …

"No other way can be shown – point blank, plain and simple – than the San Diego Padres having a higher payroll than New York Yankees."

Don't forget the fans

The economic loss for the states of Florida and Arizona without spring training games is expected to exceed $1.2 billion.

Even with MLB planning to have spring training games in the two states once the lockout ends, attendance will be sparse with games being scheduled on the fly, and out-of-town fans unable to make last-minute plans.

It has been brutal for fans who were unable to change their travel plans to Arizona and Florida after the first three weeks of spring training games have been canceled.

Florence and Rick Fultz traveled from Silver Spring, Maryland, to Jupiter, Florida, with their two kids to see the Cardinals and Mets, and were unable to even see minor leaguers working out.

The trip cost: $3,000

Around the bases

– While Derek Jeter’s stunning announcement that he was leaving the Marlins was called a mutual parting, the Miami Herald reports that owner Bruce Sherman pushed out Jeter. Jeter had one year left on his five-year, $25 million contract and Sherman wasn’t going to give him an extension.

– Most MLB teams will have to provide a rebate to their local sports networks if about 25 games are cancelled, and it will be a much greater hit for this teams who own their own networks and need the programming.

– MLB’s plans to still have a Rule 5 Draft is complicating the scouting world.

Teams don’t want to let scouts on their back fields to get a better look and have an advantage studying their unprotected players who could come back and haunt them.

They also realize that they could be training players who soon could be employed by someone else if chosen in the Rule 5 Draft.

Several teams are requesting that the Rule 5 Draft be cancelled with the uncertainty, knowing that teams would have to create roster spots for the selections while about 200 free-agent players remain unemployed, while making a judgment whether they stick around after an abbreviated spring.

– Now that spring training is delayed indefinitely, several clubs are sending their managers and major league coaches home until further notice.

The managers and big-league coaches have been out of uniform, anyways, and are simply watching the minor leaguers without providing instruction.

– Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes believes that starting pitchers should be ready for the start of the season providing they can make four or five appearances in spring training.

"I think everybody is taking it upon themselves to get ready," Burnes says. "I don’t think anybody will be shocked when the season starts. It’s a whole lot different than the COVID year. We weren’t even sure we’d be playing again."

– It’s going to be awfully strange this year with salary-arbitration cases taking place during the season, with team officials criticizing a player during the day in a hearing, and cheering them on at night during a game.

– Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine told The Athletic that baseball’s prolonged lockout will leave permanent scars:

"This is going to do damage to the game, there’s no question about that. How much? I guess we’ll see. I still talk to people who swore off the game after the (1994-95) strike, and they haven’t gone back.

"You’re going to get folks who are going to be mad, and they’ll get over it, and you’ll have some who don’t care, and they’ll come back whenever baseball comes back. But on the heels of COVID and people having their lives being altered and not being able to go to baseball games for a year, there’s going to be some hurt feelings.

"Fans are being impacted, and both sides are always mindful of that. Whenever there’s an agreement, they’re going to have to work hard to get those people back. But there’s no question, in my mind, the game is going to suffer."

– Vladimir Guerrero Jr., runner-up in the AL MVP race last season, is about to play his fourth season with the Blue Jays.

He has played only 97 games in Toronto.

– The union distributed monthly stipends of $5,000 to players on Feb. 1 and March 1, which will increase to $15,000 on April 1.

– You know that MLB is sinking in popularity when the biggest news of the week in the sports work is the size measurement of quarterback Kenny Pickett’s right hand during the NFL combine.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB lockout: Corbin Burnes is poster boy for baseball's labor fight